An exemplary study on the textual transmission of Heinrich Seuses Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit

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Heinrich Seuses (ca 1295/96-1366) Büchlein der ewigen Weisheit (BdeW) is one of the most widely transmitted works of the German mystic writers of the 14th century (there are 600 manuscripts from the German and the Netherlandisch realm extant). Its only scientific edition until now is the one published by Karl Bihlmeyer in 1907. Bihlmeyers edition has now to be considered as outdated. Nowadays there are known thrice as many manuscripts of the BdeW than in Bihlmeyers times, and as a look at those of them which can be consulted online shows, many contain a version of the text that differs from the version printed by Bihlmeyer. A new critical edition of the BdeW is therefore necessary: an edition that renders all the changes and redactional adaptations the work underwent during the course of its transmission history. Only such an edition can illuminate the popularity of the BdeW (as it is documented by its manuscript transmission) as well as the history of its reception. It is the aim of the project to lay the grounds for a new critical edition of the BdeW on the basis of a study dedicated to two exemplary chapters of the work. For that the chapters 7 (Wie minnekliche got ist) and 13 (Von unmessiger edli zitliches lidennes), as they are contained in 134 known High German manuscripts, will be compared to the central manuscript in Bihlmeyers edition (Strasbourg, BNU, ms 2929). In a further step this comparison will be analysed with regard to the filiation and groupings of the manuscripts, and the different textual stages, versions and redactions will be illuminated. Afterwards the relationship of the High German tradition of the BdeW to the Low German and Netherlandish tradition will be studied. For this the respective textual testimonies (the edition of the Low German versions by Norris, six further Low German and six Netherlandish manuscripts) will also be compared to Bihlmeyers central manuscript in order to determine their place within the High German transmission history of the BdeW. The five most important High German prints of the work will be treated in a similar manner. The result of the project will be a printed documentation and analysis of the textual transmission of the BdeW as it appears on the basis of chapters 7 and 13, which will also be edited in this connection. The research in the textual and transmission history of chapters 7 and 13 of the BdeW, that lies at the heart of this project, will make possible preliminary decisions about the necessities and possibilities of a new edition of the work: the number and the specific character of its diverse versions will not only be decisive in answering the question which editorial method is apt for the new edition, but also will influence the choice of the publication form (a digital or a printed one, or an amalgam of both of them).